Opening
Hours:Winter: 8:30
a.m. -7:30 p.m. from Tuesday to Sunday (January
1st to June 10 and September 10 to December
31st)
Summer: 9:30 a.m. -8:30 p.m. from Tuesday to
Sunday (June 11 to September 9)

The
Egyptian Museum of Turin (the second in the world after the
Cairo Museum) was established in 1824, although the
University of Turin already owned an important collection of
Egyptian material. In the early 19th century, Carlo Felice,
influenced by the interest in Egyptian culture which had
been spreading all over Europe following Napoleon's
campaigns in Egypt, acquired a substantial number of the
finds collected by the Piedmontese Bernardino Drovetti,
French consul general in Egypt. Between 1903 and 1920 the
Italian Archaeological Mission launched a number of
excavation campaigns along the Nile, thus acquiring
additional material; new pieces were also added to the
museum between 1930 and 1969. In 1988 the museum was
entirely renovated.

The Most Important Items
The Drovetti Collection, original nucleus of the
Egyptian Museum, gathers 98 statues, as well as an
extraordinary collection of papyri which can be considered
as the most important set of Egyptian written documents in
the world. Included in the collection are the Royal Papyrus,
also known as the Papyrus from Turin, with the list of all
the kings from 3,00 to 1,600 BC; paintings from the tomb of
It, discovered in 1911, representing religious scenes as
well as agricultural and artisan activities; and the
extraordinary cloth, discovered in 1930 in a prehistorically
tomb at Gebelein, which is the most ancient painted in the
world (3,500 BC); it depicts boats, hunting scenes and
ritual dances. The Ellesija Temple from Nubia dating back to
more than 3,500 years ago, was presented by the Egyptian
government to Italy following the works carried out by the
Italian mission in removing monuments and temples from the
area of the Assuan Dyke. In order to be transported to
Italy, it was extracted and then reconstructed in the
museum.

The
Tomb of Kha
The tomb, discovered in 1906 during the excavation
campaign carried out by the Italian archeological
mission in Deir el Medina, is the most impressive and
remarkable ensemble of the whole museum. Dating back to
3,500 BC, it houses sarcophagi and statues, as well as
furniture, garments and grooming items.